In designing and otherwise developing electronic systems comprising multiple integrated circuits, it is common practice for the system operation to be simulated using software-based development tools. Such multiple-chip simulations are useful in determining the extent of any interface issues that may arise within the system due to various operational factors, including clocking, data transfer, etc.
Conventional software-based development tools suffer from a significant drawback in that such tools are generally unable to provide automated generation of a given system configuration based on multiple chips or other elements. For example, in setting up a typical multistage switch fabric configuration for purposes of simulation, there may be hundreds of chips to configure, with a correspondingly large number of ports to create, and thousands of connections to make between the ports in an appropriate order. Since conventional development tools fail to provide an automatic configuration generation capability, it is often necessary when using such tools to implement a costly and time-consuming manual process to determine a suitable simulation configuration prior to performing the simulation. Such manual processes tend to be tedious and prone to errors. Moreover, if the number of chips, ports or connections is too large for manual configuration, it may be infeasible or impractical to utilize the conventional software-based development tool for simulation of the corresponding system.
It is therefore apparent that a need exists for improved software-based development tools that can avoid the need for manual generation of a switch fabric configuration or other simulation configuration involving multiple integrated circuits or other circuit elements.